Committee will come to order. Last week, the Committee Held classified and unclassified sessions on the state of the world or more accurately, the state of the world environment in which the American Military must operate and u. S. National security must be protected. I was struck by the essential point general petraeus made that we face many threats and can overcome any of them except perhaps what we do to ourselves. Today, we turn to the state of the u. S. Military. I continue to be concerned and sometimes even disturbed by evidence that is accumulating on the damage inflicted upon our military in recent years and the stresses our forces are under. That damage comes from a variety of factors including budget cuts of 20 , continuing resolutions, the failure to recognize or at least admit and then address mounting readiness problems as well as the shrinking size of the force while keeping the tempo of operations high. There is certainly plenty of blame to go around between both parties
Services committee is chaired by texas congressman mack thornberry. Committee will come to order. Last week the Committee Held classified and unclassified sessions on the state of the world. Or more accurately the state of the world environment in which the American Military must operate and u. S. National security must be protected. I was struck by the essential point general petraeus made that we face many threats and can overcome any of them except perhaps what we do to ourselves. Today we turn to the state of the u. S. Military. I continue to be concerned and sometimes even disturbed by evidence that is accumulating on the damage inflicted upon our military in recent years and the stresses our forces are under. That damage comes from a variety of factors including budget cuts of 20 , continuing resolutions, the failure to recognize or at least admit and then address mounting readiness problems as well as the shrinking size of the force while keeping the tempo of operations high. Th
The available pool of candidates. With the problem being of United States efforts with the deficit at the point of over 1,000 total pilots. We are here to hear on the on services on their plan. We know we cannot buy our way out of the problem since the military does not compete with the potential salary and some cases of the lifestyle of commercial airlines. We must make sure services are using all lever of all control. The to incentivize these pilots and discuss the way forward to stop the flow of military pilots. I look for waward to hearing fr the witnesses to understand the retention problem and to assess the proposed resolutions for the services and increasing retention. Before i introduce our panel, let me offer an opportunity to make opening remarks chairman, thank you and thank you to our witnesses who are here today. The Arm Service Committee have been receiving quite a bit of testimony over the last few monthst on the issue of readiness. There is some debate on the readiness
Retention bonuses for naval avi aviators and the rate and thats largely a reflection of how their job skills might translate into the outside job markets. And we know exactly how many have committed because of the contract lengths are design today only tbait them thrau critical milestone. We have a very good indicater of how many we have committed and we talked to them almost on a weekly basis, how many are on the fence and how many are likely to say and how many are definitely going say no. We keep a pulse of that all of the time and that helps enforce our force management, if that answers your question. We do, sir, theres a survey youll see in the written statement which is a Retention Survey that goes to the entire force every other year and thats the data that Ranking Member spear pointed out, we also have exit surveys, they told us they are going to leave, they have established a data separation and that gives us sort of more realtime thinking and that from our pilots, the date is
Briefed lawmakers on a Pilot Shortage affecting all four of the services. This House Armed Services subcommittee hearing runs about an hour 1 2. And a half. Comes to order. I want to welcome everyone to the hear on the shortage of pilots in military services. Today well hear from the services on their progress towards increasing the retention of military pilots both officers and warrant officers. We know pilot demands are increasing in the commercial sector and the demand to hire qualified military pilot is this higher than the available pool of candidates. With the problem being particularly acute in the United States air force. With the deficit at one point of over 1,000 total pilots. We are here to hear from the Armed Services on their plan. We know we cannot buy our way out of the problem since the military does not compete with the potential salary and some cases of the lifestyle of commercial airlines. So we must make sure the services are using all the levers in their control. F